After Further Review

“I was watching the Super Bowl with my 92-year-old grandfather. One team scored a touchdown. They showed the instant replay, and he thought they scored another one. I was gonna correct him, but I figured the game he was watching in his mind was better than the one on TV.”

– Steven Wright, one of my favorite comedians

I hate instant replay in sports. Especially when I am at the game live. Interminable!

I love instant replay in business.

How often do we “watch the tape” of our day, or of our last meeting or conversation? How often do we capture the things we did that didn’t move the needle, and how often do we consider them in the context of the things that would have, had we only done them, instead? How would our game plan change if we realized that 40% of our day’s plan would produce nothing?

How often do we replay a phone call, a conversation, a presentation — critically — so that we learn more quickly what we want to repeat and what we don’t? How often do we have another “coach” in the replay session, and seek feedback on whether we got it right, wrong or somewhere in between? How often do we take the time to get better, when it would be much easier to just stay the same?

Instant replay can be our friend. Just not when we’re sitting in the stadium.